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Googleplex — The checkable facts
Quick answer
The Googleplex in Mountain View is a working campus with no public tours of its offices. What visitors can use is the Google Visitor Experience — a free plaza, store and cafe deliberately kept separate from the workplace. The buildings themselves were built in the 1990s for Silicon Graphics; Google moved in around 2003.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| The campus buildings were built in the 1990s for Silicon Graphics; Google moved in around 2003 | Wikipedia — Googleplex |
| There are no public tours of Google's offices; the Visitor Experience opened in October 2023 | Google Visitor Experience — Plan your visit |
| The Android lawn statues were removed in early 2022 for repair and campus redevelopment | Wikipedia — Android lawn statues |
| Silicon Graphics workstations were used for the effects in Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 | Wikipedia — Silicon Graphics |
| The Computer History Museum is about a mile from the Googleplex | Computer History Museum — visit |
Frequently asked
Can you tour Google's headquarters?
No. There are no public tours of the offices and there have not been for years — the campus is a workplace, and employees or their guests are the only people inside. What is open to anyone is the Google Visitor Experience: a plaza, a store and a cafe, free, and deliberately kept apart from the working buildings.
Are the Android lawn statues still at the Googleplex?
Not as the lawn they used to be. The collection was pulled in early 2022 for repairs and for redevelopment of that part of the campus, and the statues are now scattered around rather than lined up in release order. Some turn up near the visitor plaza. Do not plan a trip around finding them.
Who built the Googleplex buildings?
Silicon Graphics, in the 1990s — the company whose workstations rendered Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. When the industry moved to commodity chips SGI's business collapsed and the campus came free. Google moved in around 2003 and largely kept the low 1990s office blocks as they were.
How long should you spend at the Google Visitor Experience?
About half an hour. There is a store, a cafe, a plaza and the outside of some office buildings, and that is the whole of it. Treating it as an afternoon guarantees disappointment; treating it as a stop on the way somewhere else works fine.
What should you pair with a visit to the Googleplex?
The Computer History Museum, a little over a mile away. It holds the actual history, including Google's first production server — bare boards stacked on a frame. Statues and coffee first, museum second: one shows a company that won, the other the fifty years of dead ends underneath it.
Sixty seconds costs nothing
Judge the writing and the voice before you spend anything.